Preparing for the Church

Good morning. There we go. As I'm sitting here singing and praying and rejoicing with you and all the great work of Christ, it dawns on me that God has given us a little object lesson here this morning as we prepare for Acts. There's some visitors with us, and I want to introduce these visitors to you so that you can kind of see somewhat of what Acts is about. There's a family here. They're the Warmkas. Some of you have met them. They are missionary friends and partners with you, Jefferson Park Baptist Church. They're the family that went with Ben and I to Thailand to provide childcare for the new city conference that we led. They're here visiting, and it's a great picture of how members of other churches come together to serve a greater cause in another place. There are other visitors with us. They're a search committee from another church. They're here to check out Timmy. Which is why he's up here. I thought about reserving his strange tongue for next week, but, you know, for an optic lesson. But today we had Timmy up here to lead us well through the service. And here we have another church. They're coming and they're going to ask us, will you send him? This is the beautiful part about Acts. God's people are active. They're in motion. They're moving about, and we really focus and emphasize church membership here at Jefferson Park. We believe it's important to be a body of believers committed to the same cause, agreeing upon the same means and the same virtues and principles. We believe this is important. We also think it's very important, as Tim prayed, we pray for the churches. We partner with the churches. We're active. We're moving. We're seeking to spread the name of Jesus Christ as disciples. So this morning, we're beginning a new book study. We do this normally. We take breaks here and there if you're visiting with us. We typically just choose a book and we walk through it and we go Old Testament, then New Testament, Old Testament. Old Testament is pretty easy. We just go historically. The books are chosen for me in order. And New Testament, Kind of choose what would he think the church needs to hear next. And it was clearly Acts. Acts is a new book. We're starting today. It's an exciting book. At some level, I love the book of Acts because it's unique in content. It tells us things other books, other letters in scripture, they do not tell us. It has unique information in it. I also really appreciate Acts because disciples don't look like doofuses in Acts all the time. Sometimes. When you read the Gospels, the disciples, they're always getting it wrong. The letters to the churches, they're always correcting a problem. But here in Acts, we see what a people of God, committed to being disciples of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Spirit, can do. We see the power of the gospel changing many lives, spreading throughout many lands. We see the power of the gospel to save sinners as we study in Romans. As you heard Patsy read in the first book to Theophilus, this is the second book to Theophilus. That's actually how some Christians have referenced this book. We call it the Acts of the Apostles. The same author is the Gospel of Luke. And so I want to read his introduction to the gospel in chapter one, just to give us a little bit of context because this is the second book to Theophilus. And as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us. It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. I just want to point out just a few little things here. Eyewitnesses. Luke is a researcher and he is referencing back. There are eyewitnesses. These things are verifiable There's eyewitnesses to them And then we see it's an orally account Luke has a different kind of account of the gospel. It's not it's not contrary It's not contradictory others, but he has written a different kind of account And notice the purpose verse 4 That you may have certainty that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He has come to die for sinners, He has risen again, and now the church is going out, spreading His great name. As we turn to the Acts of the Apostles, or the second book to Theophilus, we need to see that the first book, it tells us what Christ did, and the second book, it tells us what Christ has continued to do through the church. Christ came and walked among us to do great things in the gospel of Luke. Jesus Christ is still doing great things because he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell every believer to empower us to do great things in his name. Now, some people wanna look at Acts and they wanna say, well, this is a book on how to order the church. This is a book on how we should be a church. That's actually not what it is. It's a history. It's a history of how the church is victorious. It's a history of how Christ is building the church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. If you wanna know how to order a church, you go to the epistles, where Paul literally says at times, this is how you order a church. But today, as we study Acts, we're looking to see what God did, how the church depends upon the Spirit, how the church proclaims Christ, and we're gonna see two basic themes. If we look at all of Acts, this is not the outline for the sermon, if we look at all of Acts, we're going to see the sovereignty of God in multiplying His kingdom. It grows. We're going to see the sovereignty of God in multiplying His kingdom. There's a simple phrase that you can trace throughout Acts if you're going to read the whole book. It was necessary. It was necessary. It was necessary. What God said must necessarily come to be true. God is sovereignly working. And the second thing we're going to see is that God is sovereign to teach the church that He's multiplying the kingdom. You see, God, His plan all along has been to multiply the kingdom with all different kinds of sinners who have become saints in the name of Jesus Christ. And there's two different kinds of opposition to this. First, the world did not want to hear the message that they needed a Savior. The world resisted and rejected that message, apart from the Holy Spirit, that they were so sinful that the Son of God would have to be slain for them. The second thing that Luke is writing to correct is that the church had a difficult time hearing that God's Son came to save those kinds of sinners. The church was reluctant to embrace every kind of sinner that Jesus Christ poured out His blood for. So the book shows the gospel spreading from Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. There's a couple of ways you can structure the book. The most simple are these. There's two divisions. There's a book that focuses on Peter. There's a half that focuses on Peter. That's two divisions, 1 through 12. And then it focuses on Paul. So there's a way to have just two divisions. 1-12 is focused on Peter and his ministry. 13-28 is focused on Paul. Another simple way to structure the entire book is three divisions. Chapters 1-7 are on Judea. 8-9 are on Samaria. And then 10-28, the ends of the earth. And that obviously follows from Acts 1-8. Church, I hope we'll be challenged as we look at the book of Acts. Challenge to see the power of God's gospel. Challenge to recognize we need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim that gospel. To see that God is active and moving and wants to challenge us to see what can we do for the gospel of Jesus Christ. So as we look to this, I want to think about the church. Acts is about God working continually now through the church. And there's two ways to talk about the church in Scripture. One is universal. That's all believers at all times and all places. The church universal is all the believers. A local church is a specific group of believers that have committed to be the body of Christ together. As I use the word church through Acts, I want to kind of give a very specific definition here The churches, we're gonna see it kind of become new. It's the Spirit-empowered disciples of Christ. And that's why Acts 1, I've called it preparing for the church. They're not the church yet. They're disciples of Jesus Christ, but they're not the church until the Holy Spirit comes upon them and empowers them and gives them the declaration of Jesus Christ that's going to bring others to the Savior. So if you think about the things that are gonna have to happen before the church is born, the things that are necessary for preparing for the church, we've got four things, four truths. One, Jesus is alive, that's verses one to three. Jesus is alive. Second, the Spirit is coming, verses four to eight. The Spirit is coming, verses four to eight. Three, Jesus is ascended, nine through 11. And then a large section of our text, but it will be a short section of the sermon. Judas is replaced. That's the last few verses there. Judas is alive. The Spirit is coming. Jesus is ascended. Judas is replaced. Let's look at Jesus is alive. Here we see in the first three verses. It's very clear. He's alive. He began to do and do. He's telling what he taught. Jesus is risen. Now, I realize that we're getting closer to Christmas than Easter, but the church is supposed to say He's risen indeed. He's risen. He is risen. Church, this is the most central truth that we hold. If that's not true, it all falls apart. If Christ is not risen from the dead, if His bones are still somewhere in the earth, We're foolish. We're, as Paul says, to be pitied above everybody else on the earth because we have placed all our hope in this one man and what he said and what he did. Jesus Christ must be alive. And that's why it's important that Luke goes into great, great pains to make sure we see there's eyewitnesses. They saw him a lot. Very simpler here in verse three. He presented himself by many proofs appearing to them. He is alive. Christianity is not built on myths. Christianity is not built on some dreams. Christianity is not built upon some secret skull or some hidden book that was only seen by one person one time. Christianity is built upon a risen Savior that has been testified by a hundred different people. It has to be historically true or we all should just leave right now. You're wasting your time. Jesus Christ must be alive and we must be convinced of it. Many of the truths of God are mysterious. Not this one. The resurrection is not a mysterious revelation. It's been demonstrated. It's been explained. It is a sure foundation for our faith. Now, I hear many people, and I tend to think this myself. Why couldn't I be an eyewitness? Why couldn't I at least meet an eyewitness? It would just be fantastic if I could just see the risen Savior or at least get to talk to somebody who has seen the risen Savior. That way I could get that verifiable information. I want to challenge us today about how the Bible actually addresses that. In John 16, verse 7, Jesus says to the disciples, before he's gonna die and rise again, I'm going away, and it's better for you if I'm not with you. He literally says, disciples, it's going to be your advantage if I leave you, and this is why. If I leave you, I'm going to the right hand of my father, I'm going to send down the Holy Spirit who's going to indwell you. He's going to teach you. He's going to remind you of all the things I said. He's going to be the one that convicts and converts. The Holy Spirit is Jesus present personally with us. He will lead the disciples in all truth. And so we don't need eyewitnesses. What we need is even a better witness, the Holy Spirit testifying. He's alive. You have a testimony greater than the eyewitnesses. You have the Holy Spirit, if you're a believer. Also, 2 Peter 1, verse 16. Peter was one of those inner circle disciples. He got to go and see the Mount of Transfiguration. He got to see Jesus transformed into the glorious white light Jesus. And he said, we're not building this truth on myths. We have seen the eyewitness accounts, but we have something even better. than the eyewitness that I've seen, Peter says. We have what the Holy Spirit has given us in his word. The Holy Spirit has given us these words so that we can have certainty. If you want to know Jesus today, you're blessed. You can take a Bible with you. The Holy Spirit that anointed Jesus as the Messiah, the Holy Spirit that has come upon the apostles here in Acts, the Holy Spirit that has breathed out these words, the Holy Spirit, He indwells believers and enlightens our hearts and our minds so that we can know Him. Believer, I want you to have absolute confidence. If you want to know Jesus, He wants to be known, and He has made it very clear. You can know Him. The testimony you have is better than an eyewitness. It's the Holy Spirit of Christ. Have confidence to pursue him. This book is not a textbook. It's not where you go to just get information. It's not even a manual for good manners. It's not behavior instructions. It's not a love letter either. It's God saying, this is who I am. Come to know me, to love me, and to worship me. God is inviting you to know Him. If you're not a Christian this morning, this is really where the rubber hits the road for you. If you're not a Christian, the only question you really need to be asking is, is Jesus alive? That's the most basic question you need to ask. Because Jesus is alive, that means He died on the cross for sins. Means he is who he said he was, a son of God who came to make sure that everybody who believes in him isn't judged for their sin. And that means that you are a sinner and God will judge you unless you believe in Jesus Christ. And so the question you have to ask is this, is he alive? Did Jesus walk on this earth as a perfectly righteous man? Did Jesus die on the cross for sinners so that those who believe in Him will not suffer judgment? Is He risen? That's your key question. Now I have another question for you. There's actually a problem you have if you want to think about the book of Acts. And it's this. What happened to these 120 plus disciples to change their behavior from the Gospels to be cowards who deny Jesus to becoming bold with the Gospel and men and women who are willing to sacrifice their lives for Jesus. What happened to transform these 120 disciples to deny Jesus out of fear, to be willing to be crucified and stoned and martyred? You have to answer that question, I think. What could have possibly happened to these 120 disciples? You see, my answer is this. They saw Jesus alive and received the Holy Spirit. How do you answer the question, what happened to these people? Because what's amazing about these 120 disciples is this. They turned the world upside down with words. They didn't have a powerful weapon that could physically injure someone. They didn't have a great threat, or they didn't come with a mighty sword. They had words. They came and proclaimed Christ, Him crucified. How is it that these 120 people that were fearful and denied Christ could turn the world upside down with words? Because those words reflect the truth that Jesus Christ is the Savior who died for sinners and He is risen. Christian, the question you have to ask is this. Is the resurrection so central in my life that it affects what I do? Does my life reflect a life that believes that Jesus is risen, that there's another life that I'm supposed to be living for so that I'm not living for the realities today? That the privileges of this world Have I prioritized my life aligned with the kingdom to promote the kingdom? Let's continue, the Spirit is coming. Christ is risen, the Spirit is coming. Let's look at verses four to six. And while staying with them, Jesus ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard from me, For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. As you read earlier, Luke 24, he has promised. You're my witnesses. I'm sending the promise of the Father, which is the Holy Spirit. The power will come from on high and will clothe you. And now in Acts, we hear him say, wait. Wait until you're baptized with the Spirit. This is something actually similar to what John the Baptist said in Luke 3, 16. Verse eight, you receive power to be my witnesses. Now in Acts, he's saying all these things in the future. You will receive the promise of the Spirit. You will receive power from on high. At this time in redemptive history, this is future, which is why Jesus says, wait. And I want you to see here that all this focuses on the Holy Spirit. And so let's just take a moment here and think about who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity, at least in order of revelation. We see in the Old Testament, the Father is very clear, and there's vaguely a Son. In the Gospels, Jesus Christ has made Himself clear. The Son has taken on flesh. He walked among us. And now in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit is going to make Himself clear as the third person of the Trinity who's going to continue the same work of the Father, the same work of the Son, now, today. You see, as we think about the Trinity, we can think about the Father who sends the Son to die on the cross, the Father who judges His Son for our sins on the cross, the Father who raises His Son from the dead. We also know that Jesus is the Son of God who is sent. Jesus dies on the cross, not the Father. Jesus conquers death with His resurrection. The Son returns back to the Father, and then they both send down together the Holy Spirit. From Luke 24, 49, Jesus says, I am sending the promise from my Father. The Spirit is simply continuing the same work of the Father and the Son today in the church. Now, the promise here is that the disciples, they will be baptized. What does that mean? We'll talk about this much more next week when the baptism actually happens, but for now, I want to make it very clear, this does not refer to conversion. These disciples, they are believers. These disciples have been converted. The baptism of the Spirit that Luke is talking about here is a pouring out that empowers. It's a demonstrator declaration for them so the world can see these men are telling the truth about the gospel. The Holy Spirit becomes active in empowering them. The sequence in Acts 1 and 2 is different than the sequence for us. This isn't normative today. We see the Holy Spirit coming down to show what Christ is doing in Acts. Today this is not ongoing. We'll talk about that more next week, Lord willing. I want to just stop and I want to think about this command to wait. Jesus says to wait. Isn't this kind of our favorite thing to talk about anyway? We love waiting. I love waiting. I try to think of how I can make sure I'm in government offices as often as possible so that I can wait longer. I schedule my DMV appointments around December just so it feels a little bit more like Christmas. It's just so fantastic to find ways that we can wait. I don't know, seriously, we don't like waiting most of the time. But there is waiting we love. We do love certain kinds of waiting, and so let me explain that by kind of parsing out different kinds of waiting. The first kind of waiting is expectant waiting. This is happening maybe even right now, where there's a child or an adult who knows December 25th is just around the corner. They know that calendar, it's set, it's December 25th, I know what day it is, I know if I mark off the numbers, it's just a matter of time. I'm expected, I'm excited, it's gonna happen. Another kind of waiting is blind waiting. You're in the middle of something and you're waiting, but there is no clear end in sight. This is often the kind of waiting we do when we're suffering. When a loved one is sick and there's no clear remedy. When we have a relational problem and there is no clear reconciliation, the waiting we have is blind because we cry out, how long, oh Lord? Because we don't know when it's gonna end. How long, oh Lord? Can I trust your goodness? How long, oh Lord, will you keep me? How long, oh Lord, will you wait to tell me an answer? That's blind waiting. Let me give some illustrations so we make sure we understand these two kinds of waiting because they are important. A young man who is engaged is waiting with expectation and excitement. Another, his fiancé, they've set a date, there's a commitment, and they're just excited and expecting when that day comes they're going to become one flesh. The other kind of waiting, blind waiting, is that young man who is waiting for God to reveal who that woman might be that he might marry. There is no woman. There is no date. There's just a blind waiting of saying, God, how long will you have me wait? Or a pregnant woman. This is very applicable for some of our members. There's a waiting with expectation to finally meet that little life, that new life that's been developing inside of your womb. This is in contrast to the blind waiting of a wife who's been trying to get pregnant but is not succeeding. A wife who longs to have a child but has not been blessed. The womb is closed. How long, oh Lord, will you have me wait for a child? There are seasons where both of these kinds of waitings are prevalent. Lisa and I waited for a third child. We were told we could not have children. We had submitted to God's will that this would not happen, and then we became expectant. So there's expectant waiting, there's blind waiting, and I want to introduce a third kind of waiting. This is the kind of waiting that I think we actually like too much. I've labeled it lazy waiting. Procrastination. My sermon preview group just said, why don't you get to the point? Call it sinful waiting. No, I like to be more subtle. So you've got expectant waiting, blind waiting, and then you just got lazy waiting. Lazy waiting is whenever you've got a job to do and the last thing you want to do is do it. You find everything in the world to do except that thing you know is on your to-do list. This is the college student who keeps playing another level of video game when he's got a final exam tomorrow. That's procrastination. It's lazy waiting. And man, is it fun. Christian who knows the hard conversation to have, but they don't want to make that phone call. We put off the things that are difficult that we should be doing. And so we have three categories of waiting. There's expectant. There's excitement. We know it's going to come. There's blind. It's suffering. It's difficult. How long, O Lord? And then there's just us being lazy, putting off what we're supposed to do. So I ask, what kind of waiting were the disciples called to in Acts 1? What kind of waiting were the disciples called to do in Acts 1? It's expected. Jesus has given them a very pregnant promise. It's going to come. Wait, and then you can go. Wait, and then you can go. It's expected. What kind of waiting is a church called to do today? What kind of waiting are we called to do today after Acts 1? I would argue it's expected waiting, but it's very different. We're supposed to be expected. We're supposed to hear the promise of the Spirit has come. He's been poured out. We've been empowered. Now we labor. expecting God to bear fruit. We work waiting for the fruit and the power of God to work. You're not waiting to work like Acts 1. We're supposed to be working and waiting. We're called to work and wait for the power of God to bear fruit. So church, logical question that's next. What kind of waiting best describes us? What kind of waiting best describes us? Are we expectant, or are we lazy? Are we expectant, or are we lazy? Are we actively doing the work of Christ, expecting the Spirit to empower it? Are we praying, expecting answers? Are we evangelizing, expecting converts? Are we investing, expecting growth? Are we laboring, expecting fruit? I fear we are too often procrastinating and not prayerful or proactive. And let's just be honest, we wait because it's hard. We wait to do the work because it is terrifying sometimes. The work of the kingdom of God takes us way out of our comfort zone because we do not have the power to ensure that it's going to happen the way we want it to happen. And that's the whole point. You work completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit. If you're terrified, you're ready to get to work. So how do you learn to wait expectantly? Because it's not easy. I want you to see something we've done, church, as elders. We have turned Wednesday night into a prayer meeting. That is one of the ways we want to equip the saints for waiting. To stop the busyness of life and to focus together as a church in prayer. If you're too busy to come and pray on Wednesday night, well, that is why we actually made it a service. to teach us, to stop and say, we're going to stop with the business, we're going to stop with the noise, and we're going to sit here and we're going to pray to God, we're going to make a request, and we're going to wait for what He's going to do. See, Wednesday night prayer service is meant to be a recalculating. It helps us change our priorities. It helps us refocus on the things that a consumer mind. That's one of the ways we are trying to help teach ourselves and the church. to wait, to pray more. For us, the Church of Christ, we're not waiting for the Spirit to get to work. We're supposed to be faithful at work and waiting for the Spirit to empower that work. We're called to do something harder than wait. It's get to work. Work, waiting for the power of God to work in us. Now I want to point out an important work. The work we're called to do is simply this, and I don't want us to overthink this too much. The work the church is supposed to do, the work every disciple is supposed to do, you're just planting seeds. Right? You're simply making Christ known. You're sharing with other people, this is what Christ did in my life, this is what Christ taught me today, this is how I see Christ in you. You're simply trying to plant seeds of gospel fruit, rejoicing in Jesus Christ and expecting Jesus Christ to do something with it. So for example, I think some of the most important gospel work that's happening in this church is in the Children's Sunday School, in Wednesday night choir. Those laborers, what you're doing is you're planting seeds. And you may not get to see the immediate gratification, the immediate work that comes from that planting seed, but what you're doing is you're planting seeds. And you're praying that one day God's gonna let each one of those seeds land where it needs to and grow the kind of fruit that God wants it to grow. That's faithful labor, that's simply trusting the power of Spirit will do with this seed as He wants. And I'm going to wait, expect Him. Let's look at verse 8 before we move on. This is the key to the text. You will receive power. When it comes upon you, you will be my witnesses. Friends, this is still us today. We're not eyewitnesses, but we're witnesses. We're supposed to be testifying to the great work of Jesus Christ. We are not qualified to be apostles. No one in this room. Because we're not eyewitnesses. But you're all qualified to be witnesses if you believe Jesus Christ, He has converted you, and the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. We're all called and equipped and qualified to be witnesses, to use those words that change the world. Now, verse 6 tells us that they ask, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? And Jesus is answering that question by making this truth in verse 8. And I want to kind of give the disciples the benefit of the doubt here in that I'm not sure their question was obviously wrong. It seems actually kind of logical. We can see above that Jesus had been teaching them about the kingdom of God, and the question would be, when are you going to restore the kingdom of God? But notice Jesus gives two corrections. First, he says, don't ask me about time. I said to wait and then go to work. Don't worry about the time, just know you're going to wait until the event happens, and then you're going to work. Don't ask me about the timing of the Kingdom of God. Second, where they really got it wrong is they have a focus on Israel. Jesus makes it clear, your nationalism is wrong, because God is not a nationalist. There is not one nation above all nations. There is one church made up of all peoples and nations. You go to Judea, you go to Samaria, you go to the ends of the earth. Now as we study Acts, we're gonna see they didn't get that. They did not like those other kinds of people groups coming in the promised land. They did not like this. But God made it obvious. My gospel is for all people. The Spirit is going to take these disciples out of their comfort zone. The Spirit is going to take them all over the world. The Spirit is going to use them to make the name of Christ great. As we look at this church, we're to be on mission. We have a mission. We have a job description. We talked about the members meeting. Your job description is to hear the testimonies and confirm, like Matthew 16. But here's another part of our job description. Be faithful proclaimers of Jesus Christ. As I wrestle with this, what keeps us from being on mission? The answer is very broad. There's many ways we can answer the question, but I want to answer it this way, to challenge us. What keeps us from being on the mission of being martyrs, witnesses of Jesus Christ? I want you to pray about this. I believe one of the key reasons we fail to be on mission is this. We expect too much of this world and we expect too little of God. We expect too much from this world and we expect too little of God. As you think about that, think about the things you tried to delight in this week. Think about the things you invested your time and energy and money in this week to find joy. to find fulfillment. And think about how much you invest in the kingdom of God to say that is the greatest kingdom that is worth investing in. Are we expecting too much of this world and expecting too little of God? Our third preparation. Jesus is ascended. Jesus is ascended. This is one of the forgotten acts of Jesus Christ. We don't talk about it enough. It is so central to the story. And I want you to see something. Read with me verses 9 to 11. Luke likes to use what are called light words. It's a catch word. It's a word that he uses to draw your attention. And Luke chooses the best possible light word to draw your attention. There are words that have to do with seeing, beholding, looking. Okay? Here how he draws your attention to this passage. When Jesus had said these things, and they were looking on, he was lifted up, and the cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Did you hear all that? They're gazing, they're looking, they're seeing. Behold, this is Luke's way of saying, hey y'all, watch this. Check it out. Look what's happening here. Jesus goes back to the right hand of the Father. I thought about the ministry of Jesus and I look back at the Apostles Creed, they actually recite for us the five main acts of Jesus Christ. He came. Jesus came he was born as a man. He became like us without sin Jesus was slain. He was put to death by man for the sins of men Jesus was raised. He conquered death to give us eternal life Jesus is ascended his ministry keeps going. He empowers us. He changes us. He receives us Jesus will return God's final judgment where he puts everything back in proper order. We think about those first three a lot. He came, he died, he rose. We don't think about those last two enough. He is ascended. He is coming back. Let me just walk through the importance of the ascension as we think about the three offices of Jesus Christ, prophet, priest, and king. Jesus is ascending. declares as the priest that he has a complete and final atonement over sin. He has gone up into the heavens to be next to the Father, to declare to the Father, when we appear, this one I have paid for with my blood. My sacrifice was sufficient to cover, to wash away his sins. He's ascended as the one who has conquered our enemies. His ascension is essential as a priest for us to pray. Remember, we now get to pray to the Father in the name of the Son. And the only way you get to pray to the Father in the name of the Son is that the Son is right there next to the Father saying, this is one of ours. Listen, He's there to receive our prayers and give them to the Father. Maybe even more, He's there so we can really worship. We don't worship in a tent. We don't worship in something that is simply the appearance of a worship space. When we are singing and praying and living our lives, our lives are being played out before Almighty God himself because Christ is there receiving our worship so that we go boldly. His work as a priest, his ascension is necessary for it. Second prophet. Praise God Jesus is still speaking. Jesus is still speaking through His Word, from the Spirit, through the Spirit, through one another. There is no mysterious myth. He speaks through the Holy Spirit in us, in His Word. He's speaking today. Jesus desires for us to know Him if we study His Word, if we fellowship together. He's still a prophet who is dynamically speaking to convict us and convince us. And then finally, the King. He rules in righteousness. He is in absolute control. We know that as we look at the world and the nations seem like they're raging, as our own nation seems like it's confused, we know that the true king, he is in absolute control of all nations and all peoples. And most of all, we know that he loves us, he keeps us, his grace is sufficient for us. He is the ascended prophet, priest, and king. We're to listen to Him, pray to Him, and follow Him. As I look to this last point, Judas is replaced, I want to simply highlight a couple things, and that is, as we look, the disciples and women with them, they're devoted to praying together. We're gonna look at this more in Acts 2.42, but there's a commitment. We're going to wait by praying. We're going to wait all together, being devoted together in prayer. I want to point out one other thing, verse 16. Brothers, the scriptures had to be fulfilled. That's that divine necessity I mentioned earlier. God is sovereignly in control. God is going to bring about his plan. And it must have been that Jesus Christ, while on earth, explained that these passages were referring to Judas and that he needed to be replaced, and so they obey him. So they're now disciples, 12 apostles. As I think about this, I want us, church, to reflect. We're called to be on a mission. We're not called to comfortable Christian living. We're seeking to make the world different by being made different. We have to stop procrastinating and proclaim the king. Elders, I want to talk to us. We can only lead the church to act in the power of the Spirit if we ourselves are completely convinced that Christ has come as the one and only Savior. He's ascended and He has given clear commandments that we must put ourselves to mission to obey. Elders, we're called to equip the saints for all this work. We're called to equip the saints, which means we must first prioritize our lives to making disciples at Jefferson Park Baptist Church. Let me challenge you to what we've been entrusted with. It's a noble task. We have been given responsibility to equip, to set on mission those whom Jesus bled for. Those whom he bought with his own blood, his precious people, they have been put in our responsibility to lead them to know who Jesus is. There is no seeking a comfortable status quo when it's that. We're to be faithful in the work of God, waiting for the fruit He will begin. We need to expect God to do more. The members of Jefferson Park are eager to see the glory of Christ and to follow us to see it. There are many faithful disciples that desire to be more faithful. We do them a disservice if we are not seeking God's will, trusting the power of the Spirit, seeking to exalt Christ with our lives. properly prioritized according to the kingdom. Church, be expectant. Be excited. One of the things I love is all the new members coming and they're excited. It's refreshing to hear the new members coming and they're saying, wow, what a great members meeting. How encouraging it is to see how things are being done here. How encouraging it is to see the gospel work because it's really easy for me to see everything that's wrong. I praise God that God continues to give us so many new members that remind me, wow, God is at work. There's so much to praise God for. There's so much to rejoice in. Christ is building his church. It's easy to get bogged down with all the things that could be made better, but we're trusting the master builder. Sometimes I sit back and I say, Christ, why are you building it this way? I have to remind myself, he's the master builder. He knows what he's doing. We in no way pretend to be a perfect church. There are plenty of problems. It does not take somebody spiritual to see them. It takes someone filled by the Spirit to rejoice in what the Spirit's doing. It takes someone who's filled with the Spirit to regularly rejoice in what the Spirit is doing. So church, let me be clear. We're all called to work, but we're all called to different kinds of work. Some disciples in Acts, they're gonna be called to serve tables of widows. And that's the gospel work they're called to. We're not all called to be Peters, we're not all called to be Pauls. Some are called to go far away. Some are called to serve tables. But here's the beauty, and I want you to think about Ephesians 4.16. Paul says, when each member is working properly, the body is built up in love. When each member is doing the work they've been called to and equipped for, the whole body is built up in love. So four basic things. Be present, pray, serve, proclaim. I know that sounds really simple, but it is that simple. Be present and prayerful. Be present in serving and be present in proclaiming. And proclaiming doesn't mean you have to go all over the neighborhood to make sure Jesus Christ is known, but I encourage you to do so. Proclaiming is just among us. I rejoice in what Jesus Christ is doing in your life. Would you rejoice with me in what Jesus Christ is doing in my life? Would you pray with me in what I'm going through because I want to see what Christ is doing so that I can rejoice in Him at the end of this trial? It's sharing our lives in light of Christ with one another. The great truth we have to believe is this. Christ is building His church. We're invited into that church, and then we're invited to take up a hammer and start working. We're invited to participate in it. Friends, this is a glorious task. This is a glorious opportunity. And I pray as we study Acts, we will be challenged to think about how we will better promote the glorious name of Jesus Christ together. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise and we thank you that you are the God of love who has sent your son to show us what love is. He has laid down his life for us and so you too call us to love one another in that same way. Anyway, I praise you as we are faced with that daunting, difficult task to love others as Christ has loved us, you give us your Holy Spirit to empower us to do that. Help us to know how to proclaim Christ among the church, encouraging one another, rejoicing in the great work of Christ. And I pray that you would give us the boldness and courage to proclaim Christ to the world. May we see you transform lives so that we will become more convinced and more confident in the truth of Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.